A year ago I experienced a telling of the Kalevala, the national Finnish epic, lovingly presented in its entirety by The Vancouver Society of Storytelling. This bold group has been producing epic weekends annually for four years. They in turn were inspired the Ottawa Storytellers. Earlier projects have been The Arabian Nights, The Chinese Monkey King, and the Welsh Mabinogion and currently, the Mahabharata. All are book length collections of stories, ancient and beloved by their own cultures, but perhaps not so well known to the rest of the world.These Canadian groups are setting out to remedy this by their focus on epics. They are challenging the trend of shorter stories for our modern, over stimulated attention spans. They have decided to create an entire event to tell just one entire story. This is not a commercial venture, but an adventure of learning and love. They choose their epic well ahead of time and the word spreads. A text is recommended, but other sources are acceptable. About 25 to 35 tellers claim their 20 minute portion, to be told in their own style and in their own words.
Then the fun begins. Experts and enthusiasts are sought. In the case of the Finnish Kalevala, the Finnish community center was contacted. A proud speaker of Finnish was found in Henry Lahti and a pronunciation workshop for the tellers was given. Nick Hennessey came over from the UK for a workshop, as the Kalevala is his specialty. The music and the rhythm in which the epic was traditionally recited was presented for another workshop. A luthier made a Kantele, the traditional Finnish stringed instrument, and Henry demonstrated its playing.
I was intrigued by this heroic annual event two years ago when I first learned of it on the Storytell Listserv. Finally I was going to be able to come. My enthusiasm attracted three other tellers from the Bay Area and the four of us made plans to fly up together.
We were the only people from California. There were a few from Washington and Oregon and folks from all over Canada - even as far as Nova Scotia. The audience swelled and waned at different times of the day, but I think there must have been no more than 100 at any time. Over half of us were storytellers. It was tellers performing without pay to participate in a form of culture bearing our ancestors practiced before electronics or even books changed our use of words.
The sense of community gave a great glow to the event. No one was a star, and everyone was a listener. To allow us to stay at the telling hall all day Saturday, we feasted on site and everyone pitched in with the household chores. And we all schmoozed (an archaic Finno-Ugric word) and marveled at the tales we had heard over a potluck lunch and a dinner included in our tickets.
The Kalevala is a recent epic in its written form. In the early 19th century, Elias Lönnrot traveled throughout Finnish territory collecting myths and stories traditionally sung in a powerful improvised chanting. There were recurring characters and themes and it was Lönnrot who first put them together in a narrative form. He had to choose some versions over others and himself created connecting runos (verses) to pull the stories together. There is still controversy his editorship, but the resulting story is fascinating and a strong source of pride to the Finns.
There was much variety of styles and talents of the tellers . Beginning tellers told with a braveness inspired by the story. Experienced tellers told with power and innovation. There were trios of tellers, duos, drum players, cello players, and kantele players. One performance in a rap style was somehow perfectly in keeping with the ancient runo style. Many included the rhythm of the traditional tellers that had been taught in a workshop. Spontaneously, the audience began humming that tune to back up the performer. It was mesmerizing. It was epic.
